"Your most important education takes place on the campus of your mind"
This blog goes hand in hand with my podcasts to aid you in the process of keeping your mind FOCUSED on the POSITIVE that is all around us!

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

How Did You Get Here?

Have you ever gone into a room and then forgot why you went into that room in the first place?

Oh, believe me - if it hasn't happened to you yet, it will! I have found that, the older I get, this seems to happen more often. And I don't like it!

Once, when I was in college, I took some sort of physical education class that involved a game played on a football field (I don't remember the name of the "sport") and combined elements of football, basketball (you could "dribble" the ball) and soccer. Really, it did! At one point in the game as I dove to make a spectacular catch in the end zone I struck my head on a telephone pole that was in one corner of the field.

The next thing I was aware of was my teacher leaning over me asking how many fingers she was holding up (yes, people really DO that) and my classmates all crowded around and looking at me as well. I knew how many fingers she had up but that was about ALL I knew! Class was dismissed and as I sat on the bleachers with my girlfriend I kept asking her why everyone was leaving and what had happened. I know I had to have gotten pretty annoying because I kept asking the same thing over and over again - "Why is everyone leaving? Why is class over? What happened? Where did I get this knot on the back of my head?"

I had no idea why I was no sitting on the bleachers instead of still participating in the game.

Now, that's excusable, right? I mean, I did receive a concussion and had a legitimate reason not to have any idea how I got where I was.

So, now let's get to the point of today's discussion...how did you get where you are today?

Again, when you look at the timeline of where you were when you began your journey to improve your mindset and your life and the desired destination on the other end...when you honestly determine WHERE you are you have to determine a few things about this discovery.

One of them - the point of today's discussion - is, how did you get here? How did you arrive where you are?

You may discover that you have not moved very much at all - WHY? What is it (the "how") that has caused you to move so little?

Let's hope that you have not found that you are actually in a "negative" situation. What I mean is a situation where you find that you have actually gone backwards in your journey. Even if that is so, you really should be asking yourself, "WHY did that happen and HOW did that happen?"

I saw a sign a couple of weeks ago that really hit it on the head. It read:

"You Are Where You Have Been Going"

Straight and to the point, wouldn't you agree? You see, when we get rid of all the excuses and quit playing the "blame game" we are left sitting alone with ourselves in this situation.

We are where we are because of the steps that we have - or have not - taken.

Often, when we lose or misplace an item we will go back and retrace our steps in an attempt to find that item, right? We will think about where all we have been and we will go back to each place - perhaps in the house - with the intention of finding that item somewhere along the way.

This is exactly what we need to understand in this situation. It is IMPORTANT to figure out WHY and HOW we got to where we are and the way to do that is to retrace our steps along the way.

Confucius said, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." You are where you are because of the steps you have taken - or, again, NOT taken - along the path of this journey.

This is not always easy to accept! We don't like to admit our failures or that we have just been "lazy" in the process!

Hey, remember...the EASIEST thing to do is to give up and just slip back in to the "same ol', same ol' " - know what I mean?

Making a change in our lives (beginning with our minds) is a HARD process! It ain't easy!

The easiest thing to do is to follow the path of least resistance - DO NOTHING and go back to what you were doing before.

But think again about WHY you decided to make a change in the first place. REMIND yourself of that "why" - hopefully you wrote it down somewhere. If so, go back and read it again and get motivated to get back on your journey!

Tomorrow we will discuss the question, "Are you HAPPY with where you are?".

Be sure to join me on my NEW "High Five" podcast and then follow along in the blog.

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About Me

Happily married for 32 years (as of May 2014) and father of 3 sons....2 married and 1 that is not. I also have 2 beautiful grandbabies that I just can't seem to get enough of!
I'm simply a "What you see is what you get" guy.
I'm just "me".